Tony Blair slated for supporting Israel in his new memoirs, liberal establishment aghast

Robin Shepherd
robinshepherdonline.com
09 September '10

It was only a question of time before discussion of Tony Blair’s recently published memoirs — A Journey– turned to the question of his support for Israel. The Big Obsession is what it is, and we should not be surprised.

It is nonetheless interesting to see how the mainstream established media is dealing with the matter.A piece in today’s Guardian by MidEast “analyst” Chris Phillips is instructive. Phillips holds all the standard views, so there is no great shock value from his description of Blair’s reasoned and principled stance in supporting Israel’s right to resist Hezbollah aggression in the 2006 war as “his other major misjudgment in the Middle East” — the first one, obviously, being his decision to join America in invading Iraq.

What is so fascinating — and so representative of the genre — is his complete and utter incredulity at Blair’s refusal to bow to liberal-left precepts, alternatives to which, he appears to believe, can only exist in the minds of people subject to some sort of demonic possession.

The following is typical:

“As the Shia militia fired rockets at Israeli cities and the IDF responded with massive bombings in Lebanon, Blair was urged by a huge swell of public opinion, the media, his cabinet and foreign policy advisers to join European leaders in calling for an immediate unconditional ceasefire.

“Yet the prime minister stubbornly defied this advice and endorsed the Bush administration’s approach of foot-dragging on a UN ceasefire, allegedly to allow Israel more time to “knock out” Hezbollah.”

In other words: How dare he! Did he not realise that the Guardian and the BBC had spoken?

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